POWER

Raise a number to an exponent. Works for whole, negative and fractional exponents, and is the same as the ^ operator.

Syntax

POWER(number, power)

Argument	Required	Description
`number`	Required	The base.
`power`	Required	The exponent. Fractions give roots; negative values give reciprocals.

Examples

Every example below was executed against VisiGrid engine 0.54.0 — not transcribed from another vendor's documentation. Reproduce any of them with vgrid calc.

Formula	Result	Notes
`=POWER(2,10)`	`1024`
`=2^10`	`1024`	The caret operator does the same thing.
`=1000*POWER(1.05,10)`	`1628.89`	1,000 growing at 5% a year for ten years.
`=POWER(B2/A2,1/C2)-1`	`0.05`	The same calculation run backwards gives the annual growth rate.
`=POWER(27,1/3)`	`3`	A fractional exponent is a root.
`=POWER(2,-1)`	`0.50`	A negative exponent is a reciprocal.

POWER or ^

POWER(a,b) and a^b are the same calculation. The operator is shorter and reads better inside a larger formula; the function is clearer when both arguments are long expressions. Pick whichever makes the formula easier to check.

-2^2 is 4

Negation binds more tightly than ^, so -2^2 means “negative two, squared”:

=-2^2  → 4

Excel reads it the same way, which is why this surprises people who learnt the opposite in algebra. To square first and then negate, say so with brackets:

=-(2^2)  → -4

Growth rates

Compound growth is the most common reason to use POWER outside a maths lesson. Forward, it projects a value; backward, it recovers the rate that connects two values — the compound annual growth rate:

=POWER(end/start, 1/years) - 1

When there is no real answer

A negative base with a fractional exponent has no real result — POWER(-8,1/3) is not -2, because 1/3 cannot be stored exactly — so it returns #NUM!, as in Excel. So does a result too large to represent, and zero raised to a negative power is a division by zero:

=POWER(-8,1/3)  → #NUM!
=POWER(0,-1)  → #DIV/0!

For the real cube root of a negative number, take the root of its absolute value and put the sign back: -POWER(8,1/3) is -2.

Excel compatibility

Matches Excel, including #NUM! when there is no real result or it is too large, and #DIV/0! for zero to a negative power.